Philosophy 03 (May 24 - Dec 25)

[winston]

Play Is the Goal

Studying, working, driving, cooking or any other activity, so long as it only aims to get somewhere else, to achieve something else, cannot be the goal of life.

When we have achieved a goal, reached a destination or resolved a problem and have some free time, what do we do?

We play. Play is its own end.

- Bret W. Davis, PhD, “Acting in the Zone of Zen”

[winston]

The Joys and the Sorrows

If we can recognize and accept our pain, without pushing it away or clinging to it, we’ll be better able to see that joys and sorrows, are truly the same.

- Jessica Angima, “The Not-Knowing of Our Time”

[winston]

Just Being

It turns out that life doesn’t need a purpose to simply be what it is.

Does a tree need to find its purpose to grow? Does the wind need a reason to blow?

- Santiago Santai Jiménez, “Returning to Our Original Nature”

[winston]

The Mark of a True Practitioner

The mark of a true practitioner, is not what arises in your life and mind but how you work with what arises.

- Dzigar Kongtrul, “The Path of Patience”

[winston]

The Power of Right View

Understanding the technique itself, is not that difficult.

It is learning right view about impermanence and emptiness that is crucial, engaging in the practice, that allows us to be free from suffering.

- Rebecca Li, “Beyond the Words”

[winston]

Waking Up the Mind

We can be curious and open. We can inquire.

And eventually, if we are lucky, the mind will wake up to itself and know its true nature.

- Teah Strozer, “Rain”

[winston]

Beginning Practice

Being fully aware of something you enjoy is one way you can start to build up practice, patience and perseverance.

- José Shinzan Palma, “Take Five”

[winston]

Release Delusion

Although renunciation may express itself in outward forms, its essence is the letting go of the mind’s habits of delusion.

Even just a moment of such release is powerful because it provides a reference point, an alternative to the false sense of self we ordinarily experience. 

- Joseph Goldstein, “Love as the Expression of Emptiness”

[winston]

Perpetual Flowing

Instead of separate, discrete entities, everything is flowing, interacting and impinging on each other.

We and the sun and the trees, all is perpetual flowing.

- Joanna Macy, “Positive Disintegration”

[winston]

Begin Again

Beginning again and again is the actual practice.

Sharon Salzberg, “How to Forgive: A Meditation”